The Occultation of a 11.1 Star for 0.3s by Asteroid (44013) Iidetenmondai

Sat eve Feb 28, 2026 at 9:14:12pm from Scotts Valley

OWc page

 

This is a fairly easy event, except for the clouds. Bright enough you should use 2x or maybe 1x. I've put down a site at SkyPark dog park parking lot. Clouds may cancel at the last minute.

Alt=21 Az=114 in Leo, 28 degrees straight below Regulus, rising

 

     

 

 

Results:

Richard Nolthenius

I had given up on this, and was busy reducing other occultations. Then, at 8:40pm, I got up and looked outside and found enough clearing in the clouds to give me enough hope to suddenly drop what I was doing, and dash off to Scotts Valley for this. I was able to get to SkyPark, get everything set up and found the target, I believed, before swapping in the Watec. A bit more hunting and I believe I was on target. Then, I turned to adjust the readings, and noticed bright stars that shouldn't be there, and now questioned whether I was on target. There was not only 1 minute to go, I moved about trying to ID stars, and then realized only as the event happened, that the "stars" were actually very slowly drifting and were geosynchronous satellites! Since the target was at Dec = -5 degrees, this is exactly where Geosynchronous satellites will be found when seen from our latitude. Cloud variability also entered my mind. The upshot was - my recording was not on target. I got it on target a minute after the event. No data.